Sony Pictures Boss: Either We Grow or We Sell

There's no third option.

Photo: Todd Williamson (Getty Images)

Tony Vinciquerra, the chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment spoke recently at a NATPE conference about the company’s future plans and addressed some burning topics. According to him, Hollywood studios have a hard time keeping up with some of the most powerful companies in the world that fall under FAANG abbreviation (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google). That is why, in order to survive, other companies, including Sony Pictures, need to grow or risk becoming sold. Vinciquerra prefers the first option and says that in the next few years, there will be only about 3-4 big studios in Hollywood.

Sony Pictures Future Plans

Tony was appointed chairman of Sony Pictures back in June last year and immediately announced some changes on the executive team. His plan was to make the company better and bigger, so he didn’t even think about selling it. At one point Sony even contemplated acquiring 21st Century Fox, but they were bested by the more powerful Disney. In addition to that, there are rumors of possible partnership or merger with CBS Corp., but Vinciquerra states that, for now, there are no active negotiations going in that direction. There is no doubt, however, Sony will expand in some way in the future.

Sony also plans to invest quite a lot in the VR technology. They’ve already tested it with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and the reactions they got were quite promising. Also, way back in June last year, they offered the Spiderman: Homecoming VR experience in certain theaters. The VR production facility is currently being built on the Culver City lot and it’s only a matter of time before it’s completely functional. Although Vinciquerra does believe that VR is the future, he feels that the technology is still not quite at the desired level.

Among other things, Vinciquerra also spoke about the Weinstein scandal and the resulting #metoo hashtag that swept through the Hollywood. He stressed the importance of reporting all types of harassment publicly because they’re much easier to investigate that way. People need to change the attitude towards harassment and reporting every single case will eventually help eradicate it. When it comes to Sony Pictures, he says that they’ve always investigated reports as soon as they got them and the Weinstein accusations didn’t really influence it at all.